


An Accident

by gaemmel



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Lalli just became okay at Swedish at some point, M/M, description of injury, easy-peasy, otherwise it's just about love and fluff I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 07:46:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9225443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaemmel/pseuds/gaemmel
Summary: It's actually something I have written for a friend for a Secret Santa amongst my friends, but I guess we can all currently use some distraction, so...Lalli encounters something dark and dangerous on his trip, and makes a mistake. Luckily, he has Emil to take care of him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am so lucky a very dear friend of mine introduced me to this fandom! So I gave her this for secret santa. 
> 
> I didn't actually give it a title, feel free to suggest a better one to me!

It was a quiet evening in the tank. Dinner had been wrapped up an hour ago, and slowly the sunset was coming upon the small clearing they had parked the cat tank in. With Mikkel and Reynir were still outside, getting some washing up done, Sigrun outside polishing her weapons and Tuuri locked in front of her typewriter, Emil could indulge in his favourite evening activity: Enjoying one last precious hour of Lalli’s presence. His lover was still asleep, but that didn’t derogate Emil’s enjoyment in the slightest. Lalli was beautiful like this, wrapped tightly into two blankets and breathing deeply.

Over the last few weeks of doing this, Emil had come to be able to tell some difference in his sleeping patterns: When Lalli was in his dream haven, his sleep was deeper, he stirred less often, and sometimes even a smile would play on his lips while he was wandering the rocky shores and bright forests of that mystical land Emil would never be able to reach.

When Lalli indulged in “regular” sleep for some reason or another, his sleep would be rougher, he would roll around more often, sometimes even throw off his blankets or hang a limb out of the frame of the cot by accident. How could anyone ever possibly think of this – this hour that had become so holy to him - as wasted time?

He made sure Lalli was warm and safe, wrapped his arms around him, softly touched Lalli’s cheek and eased him back in. It was those evenings, when Lalli woke up hollow-eyed and still looking tired, but still gave Emil a warm smile when he opened his eyes and found Emil close by his side, that made Emil think that no matter how complicated their overall situation might be, there was nothing that could come in between him and his lover.

Tonight, something was seriously off. Emil had noticed it immediately - when he had come back in from dinner and found Lalli curled into a ball underneath the cot; a habit he had given up weeks ago, when he had realized how much better it was so squeeze into a cot with Emil whenever they were able to sleep at the same time. After that, Emil’s bed had become a familiar safe space to Lalli that he was indignant of giving up. So that he would go back to hiding underneath the bed was worrying.

Emil sat on the ground and peaked into the darkness under his cot. Lalli had built himself a nest from blankets there, only his head poking out, and Emil could hear his laboured breathing underneath the blanket if he kept himself completely still. Emil sighed and crawled under the bed with his upper body, wrestling with the limited space until he could carefully bring his arm out to lower the blanket a little until Lalli’s nose and mouth were exposed. Normally, a slight touch like this wouldn’t have woken up Lalli – today, he hadn’t so much as touched the blanket when Lalli’s eyelids were already fluttering and he was stirring awake.

“Sorry…” Emil whispered, dragging himself backwards. But Lalli shook his head, and as soon as Emil had come back from under the bed, Lalli followed him, crawling out of the space, getting on his feet and shaking his head in a violent attempt to wake himself up. This was odd, too, and Emil found himself disappointed. Normally, Lalli would cuddle himself into Emil’s arms after he woke up, and if he was really feeling up to it that day, let himself be woken up further by slow and soft kisses.

Now, Lalli walked straight past Emil and reached for his uniform. Emil sat on the bed and silently watched as Lalli changed into his turtleneck and tight pants, then the other layers. Lalli’s whole face was a mask of worry.

“Lalli, is something wrong?” Emil asked.

Lalli stopped and looked at him. Then, he slowly nodded, as if he didn’t like letting Emil in on it.

“Did you sleep badly?” Emil asked further. Lalli shrugged.

“Have you been to your dream haven?” Emil asked on. Lalli nodded again. Emil sighed. “Lalli, please, tell me if there is something wrong!” Lalli pulled his boots on, bending down to work on the many laces. Emil swallowed. Normally, he would help. Not because Lalli needed him to, but because they both wanted it. But he didn’t dare so much as talk to Lalli when he was like this.

“There is something…” Lalli’s sentence wasn’t finished, but his limited Swedish seemed to fail him. “I have to look.” Lalli went on. Emil nodded, dumbfounded. There were so many things in his head: _Don’t go alone. Tell me what it is. I’ll fight it. I’d fight anything for you._

But he didn’t say any of them, there was no use. Lalli closed the last lace of his boots and put his hood on, then slipped on his gloves. Emil stood up and extended a hand. He could see in Lalli’s eyes that his lover was already out the door in his thoughts, and lingering wouldn’t improve the strange mood he was in. But Emil had to. When Lalli didn’t seem to want to resist, he took his hand and squeezed it.

“Be careful, please. And come back to get us if something is too dangerous for you to face alone, yes?” he said. No answer, just eyes staring at him with an expression unreadable.

“Please?” Emil repeated. A nod was all he got, and then, Lalli was out the door. Emil followed to the outer door of the tank and watched Lalli bound away, fast as lightning.

Tuuri poked her head out from the radio room. “Is something wrong with him?” she asked Emil.

Emil swallowed. Was there any use in warning the others yet? Probably not. “Oh, nothing. He was peeved because I woke him up early by accident.” He lied without skipping a beat.

-

It was pitch dark when Emil was jolted awake by a sudden weight that clung to his body. He sat upright and found Lalli next to him, in his full uniform, sitting on the bed and pressing his head to Emil’s chest. “Lalli…” Emil whispered, gently prying off the hood Lalli still wore and laying it aside.

“What happened? Why are you back?” Lalli’s breathing was hard and ragged – he must have been running faster and more than usual. Emil scooted aside, wanting to make space for Lalli to lie beside him, but Lalli grabbed his shirt and looked at him, and something in his eyes made Emil freeze. They were white from panic.

“I saw a giant.” Lalli breathed out.

“What?!” Emil gasped, immediately slapping his hand over his own mouth – he had been too loud. Luckily, there was no one stirring yet.

“I felt this… _presence_. So I ran about five kilometres south, and there was an abandoned farm, nothing interesting, but… this angry, _huge_ presence I knew I had to look at. And there was a – a barn, and this massive beast inside… I ran north, only to…” Lalli had to swallow a few gulps of air, “I encounter one more.”

“Another one? What…” Emil said, but it was a toneless whisper this time.

“I realized this was too much, too dangerous. So I remembered what you said. I came back.” Now that Lalli had finished his story, he seemed to finally be able to catch his breath.

Emil stared at him. There were two conflicting emotions in him: The dread that filled him when he thought about the two giants they would either have to steer around very carefully or even fight. And the warm, giddy happiness when he realized that no matter how proud Lalli was of his independence and how stubborn he insisted on doing things alone, he kept the half-promise Emil had wrenched out him earlier this night: He had come back when it got too dangerous.

Emil surprised Lalli when he took him in for a hug and a kiss to his temple. The warmth of the touch helped Lalli calm down a little, he looked less terrified when they parted.

“What do we have to do now?” Emil asked, his voice the quietest of whispers, because if he spoke any louder, the decision might be wrenched from him any moment. “Don’t we have to warn them?”

Lalli shook his head violently. “I’ll stand guard. I will sit in the front” he pointed to the driver’s cabin of the tank “and make sure nothing comes. I won’t go more outside tonight.”

Emil nodded. Lalli was about to get up and take his place when Emil grabbed his hand.

“Can I… can I sit in the front with you?” he asked.

Lalli frowned. “You won’t get any sleep.”

Emil shrugged.

“You will distract my prayers to keep the beasts away.”

Emil shrugged again, though with an uncomfortable look on his face this time.

Finally, Lalli freed his hand and made a gesture for Emil to follow him. So they sat in the front of the tank, Emil in the driver’s seat and Lalli next to him, staring silently at the darkness in front of him.

-

The next time Emil was woken up, it was almost dawning. He must have fallen asleep on the driver’s seat… He sat up and turned around. Sigrun was up and currently sliding open the heavy tank door. Then, a second of silence. Emil’s heart started to beat harder in his chest.

“Mikkel!” Sigrun yelled. Nothing else. No greetings, no jokes. Emil was at the door before Mikkel had the time to get out of bed. Sigrun had already stepped outside. She was the one who made sure that Lalli still stood – he looked pale and was breathing hard. A thin smear of blood was running from his nose, over his mouth and had dried on his chin. But the worst was yet to come: His right leg stood apart stiff, and there was a chunk of flesh missing at the calf where something had bitten right through his boot. He was still losing quite a lot of blood, a trail of it also marking the way he had come.

“Lalli!” Emil gasped and hurried to his other side, and together with Sigrun, they half dragged, half carried Lalli inside the tank. Over the blood rushing through his ears, Emil could hear Sigrun shout to Tuuri and Reynir to stay away.

Emil knelt beside Lalli while Mikkel was running to gather his equipment. The scout was white as a sheet, but his eyes were fixed fiercely on Emil’s face.

“Sorry I go.” he choked out. When he opened his mouth to speak, his gums and tongue were dyed a terrifying, deep red. He wanted to say more, but at this moment, Mikkel arrived and knelt on Lalli’s other side.

“Mikkel, he is losing so much blood!” Emil wailed, but Mikkel didn’t even pay attention to him. He put on gloves and carefully started to slide Lalli’s leg out of the destroyed boot that was still in the way of addressing the wound. After that, he had to peel away the pant leg that still clung wet and bloody to the edges of the wound. Lalli hissed in pain and Emil took his hand, only to grunt in pain a moment later himself when Lalli took this as an invitation to press it to distract himself from his anguish. Emil wouldn’t have let go for the world.

“You are lucky that thing didn’t bite right through up to your bone.” Mikkel said in a calm voice while cleaning the wound. When he gave both of the boys a quick look between one movement and another, he sighed and handed Emil the scissors from his medical kit.

 “Cut off that pant leg well above the wound, Emil.” he said. Emil nodded, lucky that the Dane had understood that he needed something to do if he didn’t want to panic. So while Mikkel was about to get out needle and thread for the stitches, Emil busied himself with carefully shredding through the pant leg around Lalli’s knee and peeling it away when he had cut it to pieces. After that, he went back to sit next to Lalli’s head, and in a quick thought, he got up and got his uniform jacket from the rack and slid it underneath Lalli’s head. Not having to do anything anymore, Lalli quickly seemed to loosen his grip on consciousness.

“Lalli, no…” Emil wailed. “You have to stay awake, yes? Do you want something to drink?!” he jumped up once again, but then he saw how Lalli’s head fell back and his eyes closed when he saw Emil leave, and he let himself drop to the floor again to wake Lalli by gently touching his cheek. Suddenly Lalli jolted half upright and gave a scream – Mikkel had started working on the stitches.

“I’m sorry.” Mikkel said, and it sounded so honest that it pained Emil even more.

“But you will have to endure this, otherwise I can’t stop the bleeding.” The next minutes, Lalli spend in a sitting position, with Emil close to his side, steadying him, holding his hand and enduring the pain that Lalli inflicted on his hand when his own pain became unbearable as the thick needle cut through his injured flesh and forced back together what had been violently torn apart.

After that, when there was nothing left to do but dress the wound, Emil dared to go away for a moment to get some water and a cloth.

“Out with you, we can’t have more sick people!” Sigrun herded Tuuri and Reynir into the other part of the tank, while Mikkel picked up Lalli and carried him to bed. Right when he had spread the blankets over the scout, Emil was back at his side.

“Will he be okay?” he asked Mikkel.

“He has lost a lot of blood, and from the nose bleed I expect that he overdid it with his magic as well. He will need some time to recover. Give him some water and painkillers and let him sleep then.” He ordered. Emil nodded and knelt down next to the bed.

“Lalli?”

There was some sound that wasn’t even the familiar mrrr as an answer.

“Please drink something…” Emil carefully slid his hand underneath Lalli’s head and lifted it, only slightly, so Lalli could sip at the cup of water he held to his lips without having to move much. Eventually, he did bring out a hand though, so he could stick the pain killers Emil offered him into his mouth and swallow them down with two more gulps of water.

“There…” Emil whispered, gently guiding Lalli’s head back onto the pillow. Lalli was still white and while his hand was under his neck, Emil had noticed that his body temperature was off, too. He will be fine, Emil told himself.

Lalli had now closed his eyes and was already half asleep, so he didn’t flinch or move when Emil very, very carefully, brushed away the blood covering his mouth and chin.

Long after Lalli had fallen asleep, Sigrun opened the door to the bunk room. “How is he?” she asked.

Emil swallowed and wiped his nose before he turned around. “Alive?” he said.

Sigrun smiled empathically. “He’ll live, kiddo.” She said, stepping over to Emil and clapping him on the shoulder, even without nearly dislodging something this one time.

“I have had worse than his wound.”

 _But you are like two meters tall and thrice as heavy as he is_ , Emil thought. _You aren’t my sweet, my delicate…_ He had to stop even thinking too much about it or he would cry again. So he just nodded.

“Now, I need to know: Did he tell you how this happened?” Sigrun asked.

Emil wrenched his eyes away from his sleeping lover for a moment, got to his feet and looked at her. “Maybe... He came back well before his time last night, crawling…” Emil stuttered, he had meant to say “into my bed”, but really didn’t want Sigrun to know. “crawling into the tank and when I woke up from it, he told me had seen two giants, and that he came back to guard the tank over the night and pray so they wouldn’t come too close. I sat next to him in the driver’s seat to keep him company, but I fell asleep. And when I woke up again…” He gestured to the sleeping scout helplessly.

“Two giants, eh…” Sigrun murmured. “That is a definite problem. Especially since we – unlike twig here – don’t know where they are. And we can’t fight a giant without him.”

Emil watched Sigrun’s face cloud over as she analysed the situation. “We will have to think of something.” she said absentmindedly, already heading to the door, before she stopped.

“Oh, and Mikkel told me we need to get rid of Lalli’s uniform as soon as we can, and also wash him and change the sheets. Otherwise the Tuuri and Reynir will have to sleep in the driver’s room tonight.”

  
Emil looked pained. “But I guess that can wait until tonight, I’d say we let him sleep first.” Sigrun went on. When Emil gave another glum nod, she came back to grab his shoulder so he would look at her.

“Emil.” She said.

“Y-yes…” he answered.

“We are one man short now. In the case of an attack, that leaves only you and me as people who can actually defend this thing. I need you more than ever. Got my drift?”

“Yes…” Emil whispered.

“Good. Then come outside with us and have something to eat.” Sigrun said, her voice softer now.

“I… I would really like t-“ Emil started, but stopped talking when he saw the look on Sigrun’s face. Reluctantly, he followed Sigrun outside where the others were seated around the usual camp fire, except that where there was usually bright chatter in at least two languages, there was no talk at all today.

“How is he?” Tuuri nearly spilled her bowl when she saw Emil come outside.

“He is asleep now. I… I am sure he will be fine.” Emil said, trying to sound assuring. He didn’t want poor Tuuri to carry the same weight as he did. From the corner of his eye, he saw Sigrun smile approvingly. Right after he had downed some food, Emil returned back to Lalli’s bedside. The scout was still asleep. Watching him a few minutes, Emil could tell that it was a very deep kind of sleep, probably the one you needed after an exhausting night and with an injury like this.

Maybe an hour later, Mikkel poked his head in.

“Sigrun wants you to go outside with her.” He said, without letting his voice tell whether he found that appropriate or not.

Emil sighed. “Tell her I can’t.” he said, even though he had to force the words out.

“She won’t like that.” Mikkel stated. “Mikkel, I can’t leave him like this!” Emil cried out. “What if he wakes up? He needs me!”

“He’s asleep, Emil.” Mikkel said matter-of-factly.

“That doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel my presence!” Emil gave back. He looked pained. “Please try to tell Sigrun that I can’t leave now. I, I would just be distracted.”

Without another word, Mikkel turned and left the bunk room once again. Emil sighed and put his chin on the pillow that Lalli’s head was resting on. Apparently, Sigrun did not further press on going out that day, because for the next several hours, nobody came in, although Emil could hear footsteps and talking in the rest of the tank – of course, they all had to be doing something. That was how the whole day was spent. Emil sat by Lalli’s side on the floor of the tank, watching him sleep, sometimes drifting off into a doze himself later in the afternoon. From time to time, he would brush a strand of hair out of Lalli’s face with a feather light touch.

As they day wore on, Tuuri was the next one to stick her head into the room. She wore her face mask.

“Sigrun says we need Lalli to take his clothes off and wash himself, so we can use the room tonight…” she said meekly, stepping further into the room and up to Lalli’s bed.

“How is he?” she asked. “All Sigrun told us is that he apparently fought a giant and it bit his leg...” Tuuri knelt down next to Lalli and extended her hand to touch him, but drew it back eventually. “He has been asleep since Mikkel brought him to bed… He was bleeding from his nose when he came here. That’s a sure sign he used too much magic, right?” Emil said.

Tuuri bit her lip. “I… I don’t think we can be sure, but usually, that’s what it means.” A horrible thought occurred to Emil. “Tuuri, could he have lost his luonto again?”  
Tuuri’s eyes widened for a moment, but then she shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so! I mean, he talked when he came here, didn’t he? He was conscious… No, I don’t think he lost it.” She said, but they both knew too well that she didn’t understand enough of these things to guarantee it. They sat in silence for another long while, both watching the sleeping boy.

“Emil?” Tuuri then asked.

“Hm?” Emil gave back.

“One of us has to help Lalli get his clothes off and help him wash himself, because Sigrun said so… And… I, um, I think that would better be you.”

Emil swallowed. He had never before talked to anybody about his relationship with Lalli and they had made sure to hide every kind of touch and conversation that could have been revealing in the past.

“W-why would you think that I should do that?” he asked, voice guarded.

Tuuri smiled a sad smile. “Don’t try to fool me, Emil.” she said.

“I’m not fooling you!” Emil asserted.

Tuuri sighed. “Look, I know both of you still try to hide it, but I know that you two are in love! There is no need to lie in front of me!” She gave him a tight-lipped smile.

“And no matter how much it hurts to see how quickly you have gained Lalli’s trust, and a kind of trust which I will never get from him… it’s nice to see him happy. Because I can see he is happy with you.” She sighed and stood up.

“I’ll bring you water, a towel and new bedsheets.”

When Tuuri had brought him said things and left him alone with a towel in his hand and a bucket of warm water to his side, Emil found himself helpless. He had helped Lalli with his decon bath already more times than he could count, and since they had managed to kind-of establish that they were romantically interested in one another, the decon baths had always been an intimate way of Emil confessing his love for Lalli anew, through gentle back scrubbing and scalp massages, through the way Emil did not quite manage to look further down on Lalli’s body than his stomach and the sly smile that played on Lalli’s lips when he saw Emil blushing.

But taking off Lalli’s clothes and washing him while he was asleep scared Emil. There wasn’t much of a choice though. He couldn’t leave this task to anybody else, just like Tuuri said. So he carefully pulled back the covers, which made Lalli uncomfortable, but didn’t wake him yet. Then, Emil bend over the sleeping scout and worked open belt and zipper of the tunic. He would have to have Lalli sitting up for him to remove it, and he didn’t quite dare waking up him yet, so Emil moved downwards and began undoing the many laces of the one thigh-high boot Lalli still wore. Slipping off the boot was easy enough, but Emil found his fingers trembling when he started to work on the belt and zippers of Lalli’s pants, the implications were overwhelming, yet the situation Emil always had seen himself doing this didn’t match this one the tiniest bit.

There was no way of getting Lalli out of the tight leggings all by himself, so Emil proceeded to the inevitable: With a gentle hand, he stroked Lalli’s cheek until his eyes fluttered open. Lalli looked around himself in confusion and sat up quickly, and just through watching him Emil could tell that Lalli’s vision blurred over for a moment.

“Hey, slow. You have lost a lot of blood…” Emil said, reaching for the cup he gave Lalli to drink from earlier. Lalli took it and swallowed down the stale-gone water in a few gulps. Then, he took the time to realize that his tunic and pants were open and gave Emil a questioning look, who blushed heavier than he would have liked.

“I, I had to! You can’t sleep in the contaminated clothes! Tuuri and Reynir can’t enter the room like that.” Emil quickly explained. Lalli nodded.

With a groan of pain, he sat up a little further and slid his both legs out of the bed. Then, he began working down the tight pant leg off himself, swaying for the short moment where he needed to lift his whole body off the bed to work the remnants of the pants over his hips. Slipping out of the tunic and the tight undershirt wasn’t such a hard task after that.

When Lalli sat on the bed in nothing but his shorts, he was visibly freezing – an empty stomach and the blood loss had worked together and created poor blood circulation. Emil quickly dipped the cloth Tuuri had brought into the water and gave it to Lalli.

“Wash yourself quickly, I’ll change the sheets.” Emil was glad he was busy so he didn’t have to watch Lalli stand leaned against a bedpost and cleaning himself as well as possible to reduce the risk of contamination. Luckily, Emil remembered that the spray Mikkel always used on Lalli when there was no time for a bath stood in the bunk room, so they could use that as well. When Lalli was finished, he hurried to get into the clothes Emil hold out for him.

“There, the bed is ready, you should lie down again.” Emil softly said and pulled the blankets over Lalli when his lover settled back in.

“Are you in pain?” Lalli gave a nod. “Thirsty.” He added to it.

“I’ll get you water and painkillers.” Emil promised. And with a last careful pet of Lalli’s head, he left the room. It was almost sunset again, and the others sat outside and looked up when Emil left the tank with the bedsheets and Lalli’s clothes in his arms.

“Is he awake?” Mikkel stood up to take the laundry out of Emil’s arms.

Emil nodded. “I was about to get him more water and painkillers.”

“Go and eat something. I’ll take care of it.” And before Emil found a reason to complain, Mikkel was back in the tank.

“That means we can all sleep in the bunk room tonight?” Sigrun asked over her bowl of food. Emil nodded again. “That’s good news for once. Did you get anything out of him about what happened, any new information?” Sigrun asked. Emil shook his head.

Sigrun swore.“Gods, Emil, just because you fuck that guy doesn’t mean you have to take over his speech patterns.”

“I’m not-“ Emil protested, and he wasn’t even lying. Sigrun wiped it away with her hand.

“Go right back in and try to find out something. We can’t stay here forever. And take the map!” she shouted after him when Emil turned back into the tank. When Emil came into the bunk room, armoured with the map Lalli usually had to give his reports on, he found Mikkel sitting on the ground, finishing his working on a new band-aid over Lalli’s wound. The room smelled of antiseptic.

“There you go.” Mikkel said, standing up, then eyeing Emil.

“Didn’t I tell you to go and eat something?” he asked calmly. “Sigrun ordered me back in to let Lalli make his report to me.” Emil replied. Mikkel shrugged and packed away his equipment. Emil sat on the edge of the bed where Lalli had lain back down and pulled his blankets around himself.

“Hej.” He said softly. “How are you?”

Lalli gave a sound that could have meant literally anything. Emil sighed.

“Okay, forget that. Sigrun said you should make your report. Can you?” Lalli nodded and sat up slowly again, hissing when apparently he had to move his leg for it.

Emil handed him a pen and Lalli spend a few minutes carefully encircling and crossing out a few places on the map, writing little words in Finnish next to them sometimes to explain (because his written Swedish was basically nonexistent). When he was done, Emil caught him staring and returned his look.

“I… I am sorry I left again.” Lalli said, but he sounded rather angry than anything else.

“I’m not angry at you for leaving, if you think that.” Emil replied. Lalli blinked.

“You aren’t?” he asked in surprise.  
Emil shrugged. “Not really. Usually, you know pretty well what you have to do. And everybody gets that wrong sometimes.”

Lalli sighed. “I shouldn’t.” he mumbled glumly. “Oh, come on!” Emil said. “It’s just normal! Everybody makes mistakes!” Lalli didn’t seem to want to answer to that, so there was a little silence before he spoke again.

“I marked the spots where the giants are on the map. Tell Sigrun that one of them seems to be inside the house there, even though they almost never are. The other one is somewhere in this area…” Lalli took the map again and circled a part of the forest with his finger, looking at Emil to make sure he was following his gesture.

“Lalli?” Emil asked. “What actually happened? What hurt you?”

Lalli frowned. “I was still a few hundred meters away from the giant when it suddenly caught my scent. It shouldn’t even have been able to do that. So I ran into the opposite direction from the tank to draw it away, but the thing was fast. I had to pray for wind to carry me away quick enough. Then I had about eight kilometres of way back left, but I had to make a wide circle to make sure the thing wouldn’t sniff me up again and destroy the distance I had brought between it and the tank. But that giant had apparently drawn a big horde of trolls to the left flank where I was going, and I was tired from the shock and the running, so when I had to flee from one, I wasn’t quick enough anymore and it caught my leg for a moment. I exhausted my magic to the maximum to get here.” Lalli had told all of this more to the blanket than to Emil, yet it was everything Emil had needed to hear so he could satisfy Sigrun, even though his own heart hurt at the idea of Lalli having to flee from vicious beasts with no one and nothing left to rely on.

After a pause, Lalli spoke again: “I feel stupid for this.”

Emil sighed and didn’t answer. He didn’t like the way Lalli tended to beat himself up for even the slightest of mistakes. He was surprised when Lalli suddenly grabbed Emil’s arm and drew him closer until they met in a car crash of a hug, only softer.

“I just wanted to keep you all safe so badly.” Lalli whispered. His voice sounded strained.

“I know…” Emil whispered back. They parted and Emil realized there were actual tears in Lalli’s eyes. He couldn’t help himself but take Lalli into his arms again and press a kiss on his forehead.

“You are doing so well. You are doing so many amazing things for this expedition. Don’t ever forget that.” Emil whispered to him. Lalli nodded into his shoulder.

“And…. And no matter, come what may…” Emil was sniffing now, too, “I will always be by your side. A thousand accidents can’t change that. As much as you want to keep me safe, I want to do the same for you to.” 


End file.
